Photography has now turned out to be, principally, my therapy, and now through Blip, my connection to the outside world.

I was given an instamatic camera for my tenth birthday and knew then that it was 'me', even if I didn't know who Read more...

I have no car, never flown and fifteen years ago had no home.

Photography has now turned out to be, principally, my therapy, and now through Blip, my connection to the outside world.

I was given an instamatic camera for my tenth birthday and knew then that it was 'me', even if I didn't know who "me" was. I still don't - and maybe never will.

I soon progressed to an Olympus Trip, bought partly with my first pay packet from the farmworking job I had on my father's farm. Then briefly a secondhand Pentax KX, which seized high up on a Welsh mountain. Since then it has been Nikon all the way, with Nikkormat Ft3, FE2, finally an F100 back in those far-off film days. (I still have all these cameras)

Digital didn't come to me until 2008, when the full-frame Nikon D700 came out, allowing me to use all my old wideangle lenses, to their full potential. I still use this old D700, but as it is falling to bits, it's mainly on a tripod for my favourite type of photography - night-time long exposures.

A DX cropped sensor D7000 joined the fray in 2011 and this is my main travelling camera now - and everything still works on it too!

Camera Clubs were part of my life, on and off, for many years, from when I was a teenager up until 2010. The year I left I won more trophies than anyone else so I decided to leave on a high. I can recommend them, especially when starting out as well as for a social point of view. Virtual online contact with other photographers can only do so much for you and your photography, after all.

I have had some freelance work from local newspapers and still do some freelance music, festival, carnival and theatre photography. But to combine my love of walking and the big outside then landscapes are now more 'me'.

I once exhibited in the same exhibition as one David Bailey. I had even printed my black and white prints myself, for that in Cardiff's Ffotogallery, some 30 years ago. I don't think he noticed my prints. I certainly noticed his! I once sold one of those prints with added hand-tinting to the then leader of the NUM in Wales. This was at the time of great upheaval in Welsh coalmining communities.

Photography is quite easy for me, going out to take them and connecting with the outside world now is quite another...

Blipfoto and its great contributors are helping me bridge that gap and allowing me to flourish creatively. I thank them hugely for that. I was introduced to my Blipfoto by my good snapper friend David, whom I have known since the early 80's and occasionally meet up with for some good ole location photography.

From September 2014 I came up with and run the Derelict Thursday Challenge here on Blipfoto.